Listening comprehension and word decoding are the two major determinants of the development of reading comprehension. The relative importance of different language skills for the development of ...listening and reading comprehension remains unclear. In this 5-year longitudinal study, starting at age 7.5 years (n = 198), it was found that the shared variance between vocabulary, grammar, verbal working memory, and inference skills was a powerful longitudinal predictor of variations in both listening and reading comprehension. In line with the simple view of reading, listening comprehension, and word decoding, together with their interaction and curvilinear effects, explains almost all (96%) variation in early reading comprehension skills. Additionally, listening comprehension was a predictor of both the early and later growth of reading comprehension skills.
It has been suggested that working memory training programs are effective both as treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other cognitive disorders in children and as a ...tool to improve cognitive ability and scholastic attainment in typically developing children and adults. However, effects across studies appear to be variable, and a systematic meta-analytic review was undertaken. To be included in the review, studies had to be randomized controlled trials or quasi-experiments without randomization, have a treatment, and have either a treated group or an untreated control group. Twenty-three studies with 30 group comparisons met the criteria for inclusion. The studies included involved clinical samples and samples of typically developing children and adults. Meta-analyses indicated that the programs produced reliable short-term improvements in working memory skills. For verbal working memory, these near-transfer effects were not sustained at follow-up, whereas for visuospatial working memory, limited evidence suggested that such effects might be maintained. More importantly, there was no convincing evidence of the generalization of working memory training to other skills (nonverbal and verbal ability, inhibitory processes in attention, word decoding, and arithmetic). The authors conclude that memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize. Possible limitations of the review (including age differences in the samples and the variety of different clinical conditions included) are noted. However, current findings cast doubt on both the clinical relevance of working memory training programs and their utility as methods of enhancing cognitive functioning in typically developing children and healthy adults. (Contains 6 tables and 10 figures.)
We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and ...second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = −0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = −1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.
Background
Some studies suggest that children with language and learning disorders (LLDs) show more internalizing and externalizing problems than their peers. However, the available evidence remains ...inconsistent, especially regarding the conditions under which these psychological problems occur.
Methods
We performed a meta‐analysis of studies comparing children with LLDs and controls on internalizing (53 independent samples, 135 effect sizes) and externalizing problems (37 independent samples, 61 effect sizes) separately.
Results
Children with LLDs showed higher internalizing (Hedges’ g = 0.36) and externalizing problems (Hedges’ g = 0.42) than controls did. The group standardized difference in internalizing problems was moderated by the primary disorder, with children with language disorders showing more internalizing problems than those with reading disorders. The severity of the primary disorder, IQ, and age did not moderate Hedge’s g between children with LLDs and controls in internalizing and externalizing outcomes. The same pattern was found for gender as a moderator of Hedge’s g in internalizing problems, while findings for externalizing problems were inconclusive. The results were consistent when methodological variables were assessed, also for informant, sample size, and geographical area. Clinical samples with LLDs reported higher internalizing problems respect to those with difficulties, but findings on externalizing outcomes were limited. Similarly, results on the presence of additional symptoms in learning and language, self‐concept, and socioeconomic status were inconclusive, as few studies reported this information. Results were robust when publication bias, publication year, and study quality were assessed.
Conclusions
There is evidence that children with LLDs report higher internalizing and externalizing problems than controls do. Children with language disorders seemed more vulnerable to report more internalizing problems, and clinical samples reported higher problems than those with difficulties. For clinical practice, assessment and interventions should target socioemotional skills to support the psychological well‐being of children with LLDs.
Few studies have examined how socioeconomic status (SES) affects two essential parts of human development, namely vocabulary and reading comprehension, in children facing severe poverty. The Roma ...population is the largest minority group in Europe, the majority of whom live in severe poverty. This study compared the development of 322 Roma children with the development of 178 non‐Roma children, between the ages of 7 and 10 years, living in Romania. The Roma children had poorer initial vocabulary and reading comprehension skills as well as slower growth rates for both compared to the non‐Roma children. Importantly, SES had a direct influence on growth in both reading comprehension and vocabulary. The effect of SES was partly mediated by school absence and nonverbal IQ. This is a powerful finding since it suggests that poverty may have detrimental effects not only on reading but also on the development of verbal abilities.
Roma children living in poverty has lower initial vocabulary and reading comprehension skills and slower growth in both compared to the non‐Roma children. SES has a direct effect on growth in both reading comprehension and vocabulary. This effect of SES is partly mediated by school absence and nonverbal IQ.
We present a meta‐analysis of cross‐linguistic transfer of oral language (vocabulary and listening comprehension), phonology (decoding and phonological awareness) and reading comprehension. Our ...findings show a small meta‐correlation between first (L1) and second (L2) oral language and a moderate to large correlation between L1 and L2 phonological awareness and decoding. This is interpreted in terms of the complexity of oral language compared with phonological awareness and decoding, where the limited number of letter–sound combinations are easier to learn. There were also large variations in the L1–L2 correlations for all language domains. The variation of decoding was moderated by writing system and instructional language. Further, the meta‐correlation between L1 decoding and L2 reading comprehension was small to moderate, and decreased reliably with age, while the correlation between L1 oral language and L2 reading comprehension was close to 0. Overall, we argue that the results can be explained from both interdependence and contrastive perspectives.
It has been claimed that working memory training programs produce diverse beneficial effects. This article presents a meta-analysis of working memory training studies (with a pretest-posttest design ...and a control group) that have examined transfer to other measures (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, or arithmetic; 87 publications with 145 experimental comparisons). Immediately following training there were reliable improvements on measures of intermediate transfer (verbal and visuospatial working memory). For measures of far transfer (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, arithmetic) there was no convincing evidence of any reliable improvements when working memory training was compared with a treated control condition. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that across studies, the degree of improvement on working memory measures was not related to the magnitude of far-transfer effects found. Finally, analysis of publication bias shows that there is no evidential value from the studies of working memory training using treated controls. The authors conclude that working memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize to measures of "real-world" cognitive skills. These results seriously question the practical and theoretical importance of current computerized working memory programs as methods of training working memory skills.
Oral language is crucial for social interaction and for learning in the classroom; it also provides the foundation for reading comprehension. It follows that children with language difficulties are ...at high risk of educational failure. Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated that it is possible to produce small but significant improvements in children’s oral language through targeted language interventions (d = 0.16) and, furthermore, that studies with high-quality implementation show larger effects (d = 0.24). There is also evidence that effects of language intervention can generalize to produce improvements in reading comprehension. Although further research examining the long-term effects of language interventions are needed, current findings have important implications for educational policy and practice.
The possible cognitive benefits of working memory training programs have been the subject of intense interest and controversy. Recently two meta-analyses have claimed that working memory training can ...be effective in enhancing cognitive skills in adulthood (Au et al. Behavioural Brain Research 228:(1) 107-115, 2014) and stemming cognitive decline in old age (Karbach & Verhaeghen Psychological Science 25:2027–2037, 2014). The current article critically evaluates these claims. We argue that these meta-analyses produce misleading results because of (1) biases in the studies included, (2) a failure to take account of baseline differences when calculating effect sizes, and (3) a failure to emphasize the difference between studies with treated versus untreated control groups. We present new meta-analyses and conclude that there is no convincing evidence that working memory training produces general cognitive benefits.
This article reviews 95 publications (based on 21 independent samples) that have examined children at family risk of reading disorders. We report that children at family risk of dyslexia experience ...delayed language development as infants and toddlers. In the preschool period, they have significant difficulties in phonological processes as well as with broader language skills and in acquiring the foundations of decoding skill (letter knowledge, phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming RAN). Findings are mixed with regard to auditory and visual perception: they do not appear subject to slow motor development, but lack of control for comorbidities confounds interpretation. Longitudinal studies of outcomes show that children at family risk who go on to fulfil criteria for dyslexia have more severe impairments in preschool language than those who are defined as normal readers, but the latter group do less well than controls. Similarly at school age, family risk of dyslexia is associated with significantly poor phonological awareness and literacy skills. Although there is no strong evidence that children at family risk are brought up in an environment that differs significantly from that of controls, their parents tend to have lower educational levels and read less frequently to themselves. Together, the findings suggest that a phonological processing deficit can be conceptualized as an endophenotype of dyslexia that increases the continuous risk of reading difficulties; in turn its impact may be moderated by protective factors.
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